Win Without War, a peace group, displayed children’s backpacks and shoes on Capitol Hill on March 18, 2026, to protest a U.S. attack on a school in southern Iran that killed over 100 children on February 28. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — Against a backdrop of children’s backpacks and shoes, Democrats in Congress protested Wednesday against President Donald Trump’s war on Iran, particularly condemning an early U.S. attack that killed more than 100 elementary school students in the country’s southern city of Minab.
The lawmakers took part in the installation, organized by the peace group Win Without War, nearly 20 days after the start of the U.S.-Israeli campaign in Iran, which government officials and human rights organizations say has claimed the lives of 13 U.S. soldiers, nearly 2,000 civilians and military personnel in Iran, nearly 1,000 civilians in Lebanon and dozens of civilians in the Gulf states and Israel.
The conflict that Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to continue unabated is “illegal” and a “war of choice,” said Democratic lawmakers on the lawn directly in front of the US House of Representatives.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Arizona, said Trump started the war “without presenting a clear argument to the American people and without a strategy or plan.”
“And this lack of planning has had devastating consequences. One of the very first attacks of this illegal war hit a girls’ elementary school in Iran, killing at least 175 people, most of them children,” said Ansari, who added that she was the only Iranian-American member of Congress.
News Reports citing Iranian authorities and human rights organizations Amnesty International 168 children were reportedly killed when the US attacked Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Hormozgan province on February 28, the first day of the war.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters on: March 4th that the Pentagon is investigating the attack and that the US is not targeting civilians.
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Reporters then pressed Hegseth a few days after a March 11 News York Times report report An ongoing military investigation concluded that a U.S. Tomahawk missile had hit the school.
“We will not be guided by reporting or forced to state what happened in a particular situation, because the truth matters,” Hegseth responded during a March 13 speech Instruction. “So I can report that (U.S. Central Command) has designated an investigator to conduct the command’s investigation.”
Almost every Senate Democrat required in a letter dated March 11 that the Pentagon would quickly disclose the results of the investigation.
Hearings sought
Democrats in Congress are also calling on Republican colleagues to hold public hearings at which government officials would be required to testify publicly under oath.
“The administration refuses to send its decision-makers to Capitol Hill to explain why they dragged America into this war, and the reason they don’t want to show up is because they don’t have good answers for the American people,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen said at Wednesday’s event.
“We lost 13 of our military personnel (and) over 2,000 civilians were killed across the Middle East. And of course that’s the biggest loss, the loss of life, but it’s also costing the American people $1 billion a day,” the Maryland Democrat continued.
The cost to the federal government of financing the war is significant. After just two days, it reached $5.2 billionsuch an estimate. Other Estimates have estimated the cost after two weeks at about $11.3 billion.
Ansari, Van Hollen and several other Democratic members pledged at the protest that they would vote no if the White House asked Congress for additional votes Money to finance the war.
The majority of them House And senate Republicans and a handful of Democrats have so far blocked attempts to curb Trump’s war powers in Iran.
Senate Democrats are expected to force another vote on the War Powers Resolution as early as Wednesday evening.
Gabbard testifies before the Senate
Senators charged with overseeing federal intelligence had a chance Wednesday to question Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and other top national security officials at a previously scheduled annual global threat assessment hearing.
Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., pressed Gabbard during the nearly three-hour session hearing on Trump’s arguments for attacking Iran last month, when the administration claimed Iran’s nuclear weapons program had been “obliterated” by joint airstrikes with Israel in June.
“Was it the intelligence community’s assessment that despite this erasure there was still a citation?”impending nuclear threat‘ provided by the Iranian regime? Yes or no?” Ossoff asked.
“It is not the responsibility of the intelligence community to determine what constitutes an imminent threat and what does not,” Gabbard responded. “That’s up to the president based on the amount of information he receives.”
On Tuesday, Gabbard’s deputy, Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said publicly resigned One letter said: “Iran poses no immediate threat to our nation.”
